Japan's journey from unlicensed 'baby hotels' to delivering restaurant-quality childcare food

A team of cooks at Tokyo's Shikahama Kodomo En kindergarten is creating a meal that's been two months in the making.

The dish is chicken with soy sauce, mixed vegetables and some rice. Dessert is watermelon.

The nutritional balance in the menu — including levels of protein, fats and carbohydrates, along with micronutrients such as calcium, iron and vitamins A, B and C — has undergone extensive scrutiny.

"The exact calculations are based on ensuring that 45 per cent of the daily energy intake is provided through school meals," staff nutritionist Natsuko Hattori explains.

Two months prior to the meal being served in the kindergarten, Ms Hattori had to submit her planned menu for approval to a local team of nutritionists, principals and even a nurse.

"Even though it's tough, the work itself is fairly well-regulated," she says.

"When I think about being involved in children's growth, the joy outweighs the challenges."

Even when a meal plan is approved, there are further hurdles to jump.

The movement of the kitchen staff is mapped out to ensure there is no cross-contamination between raw meat and vegetables.

And lunch is only served to the children after the principal, Konomu Sawada, has tried the food and given it the thumbs up.

"My favourite dish is the fish," she laughs.

Japan's emphasis on good eating has long attracted favourable attention, especially when compared to the greasy canteen meals of the United States and the recent childcare food scandals in Australia.

Another source of envy is the fact child care in Japan is free for children over three years old.

Costs for younger kids are relative to income, meaning child care remains affordable to even the lowest-paid workers.

So, is Japan's childcare system — known as hoikuen — all it's cracked up to be?

And what lessons are there for Australia?

A healthy life starts with a healthy plate

Japan's education system has long emphasised the importance of quality food.

It has adopted the concept of "shokuiku", or food education, which stresses that good dietary habits lead to a healthy body and mind.

Shokuiku has been around for over a century, but laws enacted in 2005 now govern its application across all of society, from childcare centres right through to aged care homes.

The hope is to ensure kids are well-fed and learn healthy habits that serve them for life.

At Shikama Kodomo En, children are encouraged to try vegetables before the meat or rice.

"Even if they take just one bite, they will realise that it tastes good," Ms Sawada says.

"They will become accustomed to various ingredients.

"Then, when they return home, they will want to eat those foods, and tell their parents that they ate them at nursery school, which will lead to greater awareness among parents as well."

Japan Research Institute childcare expert Mika Ikemoto says the emphasis on quality food is cultural.

"In Japanese households, it's taken for granted that mothers provide nutritionally balanced meals," she says.

"In fact, some women feel that if they can't provide such meals, they shouldn't work. They put their heart into preparing meals."

The system appears to work, with obesity levels in Japan far lower than other developed nations.

Japan is the only country where fewer than one in five kids are overweight, compared with 41 OECD and European countries.

A recent major international study showed half of children and young people in Australia are forecast to be overweight or obese by 2050.

"In Japan, childhood obesity isn't really an issue at all," Ms Ikemoto says.

"People are very careful about what they eat."

The stigma of 'baby hotels'

Japan's affordable, healthy childcare system was born from crisis.

For decades, long waiting lists meant many families turned to unregulated childcare centres colloquially known as "baby hotels".

The standards of care were poor, and stories of unsupervised babies dying in cots left the nation shocked.

"Because it was unlicensed, anyone could do it," Ms Ikemoto says.

In 2010, Japan's waiting list for public, regulated day care — hoikuen — was 26,275.

The government vowed to get that to zero, so it doubled spending in the five years after 2012.

Now, the waiting list is just over 2,500 — one-tenth of what it was.

While this has been a boon for working parents, Ms Ikemoto says the drive for public day care has focused on reversing Japan's declining birthrate, rather than serving the best interests of children.

This means the Japanese system has various shortcomings when compared to Australia.

"While systems have changed from the perspective of women's employment, they have not changed from the perspective of children," Ms Ikemoto says.

'Too many children per childcare worker'

Japan's ratio of caregivers to babies and toddlers is comparable to Australia, with more staff per child in the younger years.

The ratio for three-year-olds recently improved from 1:20 to 1:15, also in line with Australia.

But the ratio of caregivers to children balloons to 1:25 once the students reach the age of four, whereas Australia is capped at 1:15.

"The biggest issue I see right now is that there are too many children per childcare worker in Japan," Ms Ikemoto says.

"This means that there isn't an environment where each child can be given individual attention or cared for carefully."

Japan has also been slow to implement mandatory background checks, despite several high-profile cases of sexual abuse in schools and child care.

As of December next year, people working with children will be subject to mandatory background checks going back two decades.

It's based on a UK system that has been in place since 2002.

Prior to this, employers had no legal means to verify the criminal background of potential employees.

Ms Ikemoto says the growth in childcare centres has left many municipalities struggling to monitor them.

"Japan does not publish the results of external evaluations, which is not as advanced as other countries," she says.

"Most childcare facilities are certainly good, but when it comes to whether they are safe, I cannot say that they are. The fact that it's a hit-or-miss is a cause for concern."

Ms Ikemoto says the push to make child care free for kids above three, instead of just affordable, has come at a cost.

"Improvements are needed in the staffing standards to ensure children's voices are heard," she says.

'Laying the foundation for their health'

Back at Shikahama Kodomo En kindergarten, the kids have finished their lunch.

Children here are not just taught to eat well, but manners are important too.

Students help with the clean-up before returning to the classroom.

In the kitchen, nutritionist Natsuko Hattori is proud of another successful lunch.

"I feel it is a very important part of my job to be involved in laying the foundation for their health," she says.

"I'm proud of it."